ALAMOSA, Colo. - In what was a back and forth, full-court bout the entire way, the Adams State Grizzlies Men's Basketball team downed the Cowboys of New Mexico Highlands for what their first RMAC victory of the 2019-20 season. The Grizzlies stunned the Cowboys who entered Saturday's contest undefeated, and put together a complete team victory to move to 3-5 on the season.
 
Going into halftime, the Grizzlies led by a margin of just four points and knew that in order to come out and get the victory they would have to play a lights out second half on both ends to hand New Mexico Highlands their first defeat. Led by top scorers Juwan Green and Kaelin Crane, they were able to do exactly that.
 
It was Green who did it all in the game, as the graduate senior point guard notched a double-double in 38 minutes of work with 24 points to lead all scorers, and a game-high 10 assists. His partner in the dynamic scoring duo of the night was forward Kaelin Crane, who scored clutch points in the second half to secure the victory for the Grizzlies, as well as crashing the glass for tough rebounds against the Grizzlies' RMAC foe. Crane finished the night with 22 points and 11 rebounds, and helped will his team to the finish line with his solid play. Freshman Rylan O'brien broke out of his scoring slump of the last few games, and finished with 19 points, hitting four big threes to aid in the Grizzlies' scoring attack.
 
The undersized Grizzlies all but shut down the Cowboy posts, in what was undoubtedly one of their most noble defensive performances of the year. What they lacked in size up against the Highlands bigs, they made up for with strength and effort. They were able to force 14 key turnovers on the defensive end, and dare the Cowboy guards to beat them from deep. Coach Russ Caton came into the game with a solid game plan of how to match up against a bigger team without any true post players, and while that may have undoubtedly paid off in the end, there is no substitute for great effort on both ends, which is exactly what the Grizzlies exhibited Saturday.
 
The win for the Grizzlies Saturday gets them back in the win column, and the victory against the unbeaten Cowboys may be the spark that they need in order to become one of the RMAC's best teams in 2020. With their bigs Relando Rogers and Jared Perry set to return from injury, the undersized Grizzlies hope to be able to hold down the fort until then, and come away with more performances like the one they had against New Mexico Highlands Saturday night.
 
The Grizzlies will be back in action next weekend, as they prepare for another long road trip, this time to South Dakota to square off against RMAC opponents Black Hills State on Friday and South Dakota Mines on Saturday.